Christmas Memories 2008

Christmas Eve at Grandma Barbie and Poppie's House

We enjoyed Christmas Eve at Dave's parent's home with his sisters Cindy and Cheri. It was the perfect lead-in to Christmas Day. Here are my top 5 memories!

Top 5 Memories

5. Opening presents from the Lindsay side!

4. Delicious Ham Dinner with Barbara's yummy pineapple/walnut stuffing.

3. Discussing at dinner for the 2nd time what we should name our soon-to-be-born daughter!

2. Watching our children and Carson attempt to reverently act out the story of the birth of Jesus.

1. Learning that my father-in-law, Dale, had been in a LA gang as a young man......

WE LOVE IT AT GRANDMA BARBIE'S HOUSE!

Dave and Taylor on Christmas EveJaxson, acting the part of JosephAustin as the WisemanTaylor as MaryKids ready to come down the hall for everybody!Listening to Poppie read in the book of LukeAustin, trying to be reverantPRESENT TIME!!!!!

After leaving our grandparent's home, we came back to our house to get ready for bed! The kids were so excited! They wrote their "lists" for Santa, put out the cookies and milk and quickly hit the sack!

Jaxson (4), Taylor (7), Carson (8) and Austin (2)

Christmas Eve 08

Christmas Morning!

At 4 am, I heard voices coming from the room where the kids were sleeping. I went in to tell them to be quiet and go back to sleep since we weren't getting up until 7:00am. They were so hyped since they had seen the trail of reindeer drops (hershey kisses) leading to the living room so they knew that Santa had come! For the next 1 1/2 hours, I went in every 10-15 mintues to tell them to be quiet and go back to sleep! It reminded me of the days of yore when all of my siblings and I used to sleep in the same attic room and my brothers would wake up in the middle of the night and yell down the vents, "Merry Christmas! Can we come down now?" It always provoked the Christmas morning argument.....

Time to run in the living room to see what Santa brought!

Taylor and Jaxson got roller skates from Santa! They were so excited! The boys received new bedspreads for their new bunkbeds from mom and dad

Austin and Aunt Cindy!

Carson was thrilled to add to his Lego collection

LAST FAMILY PICTURES

I HATE pictures of myself when pregnant! My face is huge, my 8 chins just hang there, my neck and arms can make any NFL football player jealous and then my belly...... it is so huge, it practically blocks the sun if I'm in front of you!

Having said that, here is the last picture any of you will see of me until the birth of our little sweetie! :)

Dale

Barbara

Merry Christmas 2008! We had a wonderful Christmas season and feel very blessed to have good health, a baby coming soon, jobs and the gospel in our lives! Love to all!

Christmas Holiday Craziness!

The past few weeks have been fun, yet crazy! Here it is, December 22nd, and I'm not finished with my Christmas shopping. Seriously, I'm not. Are you worried for me? You should be. This year has been so difficult since I've hardly been able to walk for the past several months! I tried to do some online but that wasn't too successful when it comes to shopping for Dave's sisters, Cindy and Cheri. I still have to get them presents and my father-in-law, Dale. Neighbor's gifts are still in my house. Why? Let me show you how things are looking today:

Dave and Jaxson on the top of the driveway

Taylor and Natalie with the snowman they built in the backyard

Taylor and neighbor Natalie with their "snowbabies."

Where are the front steps?

Dave's new part-time job: shoveling the driveway twice a day! :) PS- the weather forecaster just said that Cedar Hills received 10 inches alone today! I'll dedicate those inches to my siblings, cousins and friends living in AZ and CA who are LAUGHING right now!! :)

This past weekend, we went to Park City to relax as a family. It was a great time, in spite of the fact that I had no swimming suit to cover my extended belly area and couldn't go in the hot tub with my family. The kids LOVED it! We stayed at the Westgate Resort. They had a kid's club where the kids hung out for a hour or so, we got to see Santa in the front lobby before we left and our favorite part was that everybody slept in until 8:30 am (that has never happened in our lives!).

Westgate Resort

Anyway, it is nice to be home, kind of snowed in with my children. They have been overall really good today. They just came in from outside so time to make hot chocolate!

2008 Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

This year's concert was fabulous and my favorite by far! The guest artist was Brian Stokes Mitchell, a broadway singer whom I had heard a few months back at the Tanner Gift of Music Concert with my uncle. Brian was incredible!!!! He had a way of connecting with the audience along with an unforgetable voice! When it was announced he was the guest singer this year, I knew I had to go! I registered for tickets, along with asking my sister in Arizona and Logan to register also for me to go! Well, I wasn't chosen for tickets and was disappointed beyond belief! Neither my mother nor sister in Logan got chosen in the random drawing, so I didn't even bother to call Jenny in AZ to see if she got tickets because she had a new baby and was busy, blah, blah, blah. So, on Thursday the 11th of Dec, Jen calls me up to let me know that she hadn't gotten her mail in 5-6 days, but when she opened it, there were tickets for Friday, the 12th of December! She called UPS to see about overnighting expenses. On Friday, at 10:15am the tickets arrived at my work! THe Christmas concert was on!

Dave's mom was so nice to watch the kids overnight at her house so we could stay out as long as we wanted! Doug and Melissa (my cousin and his wife) got a family member to watch their kids overnight as well. After the concert, we had reservations at PF Changs at 10:00 pm and didn't leave there until close to midnight. Anyway, it was the greatest night and most wonderful date! The concert was amazing! I loved the bells, dancers, stories and music! The choir was amazing and Brian.....I am a bigger fan than ever now! He can SING! I love being close enough to attend spectacular cultural events! What a night! Wonder how many of these we'll be able to enjoy in the upcoming months with the baby on the way in about 6 weeks.....! :)